The present invention relates to a carbon fiber-metal composite material and a method of producing the same.
In recent years, a composite material using carbon nanofibers has attracted attention. Such a composite material is expected to exhibit improved mechanical strength and the like due to inclusion of the carbon nanofibers. However, since the carbon nanofibers have strong aggregating properties, it is very difficult to uniformly disperse the carbon nanofibers in the matrix of the composite material. Therefore, it is difficult to obtain a carbon nanofiber composite material having desired properties. Moreover, expensive carbon nanofibers cannot be efficiently utilized.
As a casting method for a metal composite material, a casting method, which causes magnesium vapor to permeate and become dispersed in a porous formed product of oxide ceramics while introducing nitrogen gas so that a molten metal permeates the porous formed product, has been proposed (e.g. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-183269). However, since the related-art casting method which causes the molten metal to permeate the porous formed product of oxide ceramics involves complicated processing, production on an industrial scale is difficult.